160 THE IRISH AGRARIAN PROBLEM. 



problem ; at the bottom of it lies the fact 

 thai a farm which is burdened with interest on 

 purchase money, and whose owner has neither 

 working capital nor technical knowledge, can 

 only show a surplus of profit under rarely 

 favourable circumstances. Were the Irishman 

 not capable of reducing his standard of living to 

 the lowest possible point, the continued existence 

 of numerous farmsteads in the country would be 

 incomprehensible. But even this tenacity will 

 prove inadequate to protect many of the newly- 

 established farms against serious dangers. A 

 rise in prices will of course afford some relief, 

 just as the reductions in rent did. But the future 

 of Ireland does not lie in agricultural tariffs 

 it lies far more in the co-operative movement. 

 Even if agricultural tariffs could effect in Ireland 

 all that their champions claim for them, and 

 effect it without any accompanying drawbacks, 

 they would yet remain only one more link in the 

 chain of legislative measures which are expected 

 to bring about Ireland's welfare, without the 

 active assistance of the Irishman himself. 



For centuries the agrarian system of Ireland 

 was indeed so regulated that the abandonment 

 of all energetic effort seemed to be justified. 

 The possibilities of success which are now open 

 have not as yet set free the forces of the Irish 

 people. The co-operative movement was the 

 first attempt to organize these forces. This 

 movement has in Ireland other problems to solve 

 than it has elsewhere. In other countries, the 



